While their school is located in the United Kingdom, more than 150 British military students spent the past two weeks at Fort Leavenworth.

They've been part of the Eagle Owl exercise, an event that teams students from the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth with officers from the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom’s Intermediate Command and Staff Course (Land).

The exercise involved a fictional stability operation in Africa. Last week, the military students worked on the planning for the operation. This week, they executed the plan, according to Dave Goebel, an assistant professor at the CGSC.

Eagle Owl wrapped up Thursday with a day that included an after action review as well as sports competitions between the British and U.S. officers.

Goebel said about 500 people including students and faculty members were involved in the exercise.

The military students worked in groups. Each group had a mix of CGSC students and British officers.

"We are set up to function as a true command staff headquarters unit would function," Maj. Kristina McElroy said of one group.

She was one of the CGSC students who participated in the exercise.

She said people in the group were assigned different duties.

British Maj. Zoe White said as the students went through the exercise, they had to react to changing situations.

Goebel said the exercise exposes students to U.S. and U.K. decision-making processes.

In addition to the U.S. officers, international officers who also are studying at the CGSC participated in the exercise. Additionally, six representatives of the French military who are at Fort Leavenworth as part of exchange program participated in Eagle Owl.

There also was a six-person component of civilian stabilization advisers from the United Kingdom.

Andrew Tesoriere, a former ambassador from the U.K., said the scenario used in the exercise included a wide range of issues that occur in real operations.

Col. Dave Batchelor, director of the Department of Army Tactics at the CGSC, said the exercise provides the U.S. students with a better sense of dealing with multinational partners.

Eagle Owl is nothing new at Fort Leavenworth. The post has been hosting the exercise since 2006, according to Goebel.

"They shut down their course for two weeks and come over here," Goebel said of the British officers.

The exercise is held twice a year. This allows both of the classes that graduate each year from the Command and General Staff Officer Course at Fort Leavenworth to participate in Eagle Owl.